Chidambaram,
Great piece of information. do u have the overall SR data? we will know the revenue of TVM central, Palakkad, Ernakulam also.

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Packing work in progress on the Velankanni-Nagapattinam railway track at Velankanni on Tuesday.

The 10-km Velankanni-Nagapattinam rail line is nearing completion with penultimate works, focussing on safety, in progress.

As part of the works, Southern Railway has commissioned an additional packing machine to ensure firm embedment of sleepers on to the ballasts. It would be put to use soon for expediting the works.

The packing machines would provide firmly laid sleepers over ballasts to prevent relative movement of the sleeper after the line is commissioned. Nandakumar, Deputy Chief Engineer, Southern Railway, told The Hindu: “The purpose is to make the track stable, as the primary concern of Railways is passenger safety.”

The station building at Velankanni, constructed three years ago, is being overhauled and provision provided for additional platforms and shelters. Works on platform surface, approach roads, VIP siding and VIP lounge and retiring are under way. The station works will entail expenditure Rs.10 crore to Rs.12 crore. According to Mr. Nandakumar, some minor works would be taken up at the Nagapattinam station too, before the line is opened.

Loco trial run was conducted on the stretch in early February after the track was laid. The ballasts remained to be laid then. Since the line passed through loose earth, additional protection is required for bridges and embankments and those works are in progress, Mr. Nandakumar said.
Source:www.thehindu.com

Pollachi: Dindigul–Pollachi–Coimbatore and Pollachi–Palakkad gauge conversion work would be competed by 2011, said Southern Railway Chief Administrative Officer (Construction) R. Ramanathan on Friday.

Mr. Ramanathan was talking to reporters after inspecting the rail overbridge construction work on Pollachi–Kottur Road at Makkinampatti and Vadugapalayam besides other gauge conversion work along with Pollachi MP K. Sugumar and MLAs V. Jayaraman and S. Damodaran.

Mr. Ramanathan said the gauge conversion work from Coimbatore to Dindigul via Podanur and Pollachi and Pollachi to Palakkad had been divided into four packages and the work was progressing. The total distance is 225 km and the total cost of the works is expected to be Rs. 900 crore.

Fifty per cent of the work in the area from Dindigul to Palani (58 km) had been completed and it would be completed by March 2011. Work between Palani and Pollachi (58 km) and from Pollachi to Palakkad (55 km) would be completed by June 2011. Work in the Pollachi-Podanur sector covering 40 km would be completed by December 2011. During 2009-10 Rs. 31 crore was allotted to broadgauge conversion work whereas the actual expenditure was Rs. 140 core. In the fiscal 2010-2011, the allotment was Rs. 60 crore whereas the allotment sought was Rs. 175 crore. Contractors have been assigned for the work in the entire distance and it has gained momentum now. Mr. Ramanathan said 246 bridges from Dindigul to Pollachi, 166 bridges from Pollachi to Palakkad and 85 from Pollachi to Podanur were being rebuilt.

During the last fiscal Rs. 238 crore was allocated for conversion of meter gauge to broad gauge whereas the expenditure incurred was Rs. 554 crore. In the current year the demand placed was for Rs. 550 crore whereas the allocation was Rs. 311 crore, he said. The demand for these works during 2010 was Rs. 200 crore and 2011 for completion requirement would be Rs 250 crore. All stations in the Dindigul–Pollachi–Coimbatore and Pollachi–Palakkad sectors numbering around 16 were being upgraded, Mr. Ramanathan said.

Any update on Tambaram termius work...last 6 months there is no progress in the station work. There were discussions on making it a third terminal in chennai. TBM has a very good potential for being a third terminal . There are around 9 platforms ..huge space for maintenance shed . Hero honda bikes for chennai and surrounding areas are unloaded here.

Revenue from CBE will increase drastically if trains diverted via Podanur-Irugur passes through CBE and the Line from Podanur to Dindugal is restored(Good for MDU). More services in the CBE-MTP or introduction of suburban trains to satellite towns of Tirupur, MTP, Pollachi and Palghat will make a bigger impact to the revenue(for every 5 min there is a bus service to all these towns from CBE). Time to consider another terminal for CBE(Podanur).

With the introduction of new line between SA-Namakkal-Karur, Salem will also see improvement in revenue collection in the coming year. This may be a loss for the Erode. Erode has to wait for the new palani line. I feel the line between Salem and Viridhachalam is underutilized.

Same will be the case with Katpadi b'cos of the new line to VPM.

With main line being completely operational and if doubling between MDU-Trichy-Chengalput(The most important project for the whole corridor as this will remove the bottleneck prevailing now) is completed we can see a drastic improvement in Trichy's and MDU revenue.

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SALEM: Work on the Salem-Namakkal-Karur broadgauge line, a link for southern districts with western Tamil Nadu, is progressing fast. The project, initiated in 1996-97, was mired in legal wrangles related to land acquisition and other issues before it took off three years ago. With DMK in the State and PMK at the Centre and a goodwill between them, the project then received a fillip and a steady flow of funds. The legal issues of land attachment were sorted out thanks to the efforts of the then Union Minister of State for Railways R. Velu.

A senior official with the Salem Railway Division said almost 80 per cent of earth works had been completed in the 85-km-long project being executed in two phases – Salem-Namakkal and Namakkal-Karur.

Works on many culverts, bridges and rail overbridges are on the verge of completion. Work on the Vangal bridge across river Cauvery, near Karur, is on. Similarly the massive overbridges on Trichy Road in Namakkal town, Senthamangalam and also one near Mohanur are nearing completion.

Buildings for stations in Rasipuram, Namakkal and Mohanur are yet to be completed. There are six major bridges, including the 800-metre long Vangal bridge, 12 minor bridges, 25 rail overbridges and underbridges on this 85-kilometre stretch. Railway sources said traffic between the Salem and Namakkal sector would be possible next year.

World Class Chennai Central Railway Station - Suggestions Invited
Ministry of Railways have decided to undertake redevolopment and modernization of Chennai Central station into World Class station. In this conneciton, it is proposed to prepare feasibility report and master plan through global consultancy contact.

In order to formulate the terms of reference, the views/suggestions of the ultimate users about the short-comings at the existing station, improvements required and facilities envisaged will be of immense value.

GC between Manamadurai and Virudhunagar may be completed in 30 months (planned to be completed in 18 months). Laying track between Virudhunagar and Aruppukottai is nearing completion while between Aruppukottai and Manamadurai is delayed because of delay in construction of bridge work. The work was started before three years (just 67 Kmts).

CHENNAI: To improve safety on rails, Southern Railway will try out a digital track monitoring system (DTMS). The pilot project is expected to be carried out in Salem division soon before being expanded to other divisions.
The system will enable officials at the Railway Board, zones, divisions and those on the field to monitor the condition of tracks through computer screens. Indian Railways has selected six railway divisions across the country for a pilot project. Salem is one among them.

Salem division has railway tracks extending to 1,233 km. “Preliminary works like distribution of digital notebooks and feeding on track information into the computer system have begun to put the digital track monitoring in place. It is expected to be commissioned in a month,” a senior railway official said.

“Under the web-based automated system, railway officials will use digital notebooks to enter details of track conditions and flaws that they find during inspections. The information will be immediately updated to the database and can be accessed by senior officials to monitor and recommend changes or corrective steps,” said a senior engineer of Southern Railway.

At present, junior engineers and section engineers manually inspect tracks and enter such information into a register. It is estimated that more than six lakh registers are maintained across Indian Railways for recording track information. Retrieving relevant information from this voluminous hard copy is often impossible. (Do they know what a computer is? ***holes)

Centre for Railway Information System will develop the software and support services like storage and retrieval of data for the new DTMS. Automation will be done initially so that flaws could be detected quicker and corrective steps could be suggested by engineers — from the junior most to the senior most — depending on their experience and expertise.

On completion of chennai-kanniyakumari doubline we can expect a superfast or a Garib rath type train which can do chennai-trivendrum via madurai in 12 hr 30 mins. brief scheule of train maybe this way: